Closing ranks in the Church – Part II

Today marks the first anniversary of the publication of the lifiting of the excommuncation of the four bishops consecrated by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988. These are Bernard Fellay, Richard Williamson, Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Tissier de Mallerais. The lifting of the excommunications on the four bishops caused outrage when it became know that Richard Williamson had given an interview to Swedish television in which he denied Nazi gas chambers were used to kill Jews. The move saw the Vatican scramble to react to the charges that anti-Semitism was rife inside the Vatican. However, this is not the issue – it is the fact that leaving aside the Williamson affair, that he was willing to open discussions (which started in October 2009) with the SSPX and urges them to return while others who hold different views to the other end of the spectrum are shunned and told to recant as they are not othodox enough. Another event came that same year when on 20 October 2009, the apostolic constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus, was published. The document gives up to 400,000 conservative Anglicans who form the Traditional Anglican Communion, a means of entry into the Catholic Church while preserving their own customs and liturgy, but reject women bishops and a praticsing homosexual clergy, amongst other things. The move caused uproar in the liberal elements of the Anglican Communion as there seemed to have been little or no co-ordination between Rome and Canterbury on the issue or timing of the announcement.

This move again shows that Pope Benedict is only interested in dealing with those to conform to his view, even if it means alienating those who hold similar views but reject/disapprove of some of what he has said and done in the past.

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[…] saw as the drift in the Anglican Communion, to join the Latin Rite Catholic Church. This has been written about before but it is enough to say that this has caused much upset amongst those who feel that this is a […]